NEWS: Target Recalls TWO Circo-Brand Items

Target announced a new Circo-brand recall today, add this to the Circo Booster Seat recall from June 15, this one on their Aloma Infant Girls Sandals. No injuries have been reported yet.

The sandals have decorative white plastic flowers attached to the toes and side areas. The flowers can be detached and pose a choking hazard. For a full refund, bring the shoes into any Target.

An additional 10 injuries have been reported since Target's 2009 recall of the Circo Child Booster Seats, bringing the total number of injuries to 18. The additional injuries prompted Target to expand the recall of the product from those seats sold between Dec. 2008 and June 2009, to all seats sold as far back as 2005. The constant issue is the restraint buckle or safety buckle can suddenly detach and allow the child to topple out. This could pose some serious consequences depending on the circumstances, so Target's pretty lucky there haven't been any permanent disabling or fatal injuries.

Visit the Consumer Safety Product Commission for more information on these and all recalls.

NEWS: Stronger Crib Standards May Cause SMBs Financial Loss

While I feel for the small businesses (SMBs) out there selling cribs no longer deemed safe by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, I can't argue that it is for the best.

See back in Dec. 2010, the CPSC voted to put very high safety standards on cribs sold in this country, making drop-side cribs illegal and creating overall more structurally sound cribs. The Commission put a June 28 deadline on companies, large and small, to get rid of their older, less safe cribs.

Now, some SMBs are having a hard time selling their older cribs and some are looking for an extension to the June 28 deadline. But the commission is not having it and so it looks like about 100,000 cribs may have to be trashed if they are not sold by the deadline.

I feel for those SMBs losing out on the already-hard-to-get dollars in this economy, but seriously, I can't feel too bad. The CPSC is doing a great thing by making sure more infants will be safe in their beds while they sleep (or don't). There has to be a deadline and it has to be enforced or it'll just drag on. So to the CPSC, I say kudos to you and thanks for helping all us parents rest a little easier in our own beds.

Read the CPSC Chairman's statement here.

NEWS: Reannouncement of Maclaren Stroller Recall (2009)

Additional fingertip amputations and cuts have caused the Maclaren company to reannounce their stroller recall from November 2009. An additional 112 injury incident reports have been filed since 2009, making the total reported injuries at 137.

About a million strollers are being recalled in total (from before 2009 and now) after a total of 17 fingertip amputations were reported and multiple laceration and finger-entrapment and bruising reports.

The strollers being recalled are the double-wide and single-wide umbrella strollers.

For many women, buying a stroller brand new is not an option. If you buy a used stroller, however, make sure there are no recalls on the item by checking online through the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission website.

NEWS: BPA Linked to Baby Breathing Issues

So all that water I was drinking while I was preggo could lead to my little one wheezing, how sad. :( I hope not! I was good and bought a metal water bottle, but I quickly found it wasn't dishwasher safe (the exterior) and wound up reverting back to my plastic water bottles at least three out of the five work days. Hopefully nothing will happen to the little one because of it, but researchers from Penn State University Hershey Medical School, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and Simon Fraser University found that exposure to BPA while in the womb could lead to childhood wheezing. Yikes!

[What is BPA? Click here]

The study reads that 398 children and their mothers were studied and 99 percent of the moms had detectable BPA levels during their pregnancy. The higher the level of BPA the more wheezing. Although this is far from a large study, the presence of wheezing definitely begs the question, what is happening to the development of the lungs in these babies? That much is unclear and what's also strange is the wheezing did appear to diminish with age (after 6 months).

My daughter doesn't wheeze, thankfully, and besides water bottles there are a number of ways to get BPA in one's system, so hopefully if I had any it wasn't enough to amount to much. Hopefully for you all too!